Employee Assistance Programming has evolved from a mechanism of social control to a major force for heatlh promotion. The field offers great potential for helping to build healthier communities of workers and families, in addition to helping individual workers who may see themselves, or be seen by others, as people with problems.
Wellness and Work: Employee Assistance Programming in Canada provides a clear vision for employee assistance programming. The book is divided into five sections: (1) evolution, (2) structure, (3) practice, (4) case studies, and (5) creating wellness. In this historical, theoretical, and practice-oriented collection of original articles, both student and practitioner will trace the growth of this burgeoning field of practice. An informative and useful book for the practitioner and visionary alike, Wellness and Work will be an essential addition to the libraries of helping professionals and service delivery organizations.

In this book, contributing scholars, practitioners, and researchers offer their practice experience and findings related to creating workplace wellness with emphases on the intellectual, vocational, physical, social, psychological, and spiritual needs of workers and the structures and policies within their workplaces.
The first section of the book, “The Hazardous Workplace,” addresses the stressful workplace, workplace violence, bullying, and counselling in an environment where stress is high and work entails more than the usual amount of risk. “Workplace Responses,” the second section, examines the history of occupational assistance, several models of employee assistance practice, the workplace management of dis/abilities, complications around drug testing on the job, the relevance of spirituality to the workplace, an Aboriginal perspective on work, and an evaluative mechanism for occupational programming.
Intake and assessment, crisis intervention, critical incident stress management, brief treatment, counselling employees suffering from depression or experiencing grief, and the role of mediation inside and outside of the workplace are explored in the third section, entitled “Practice to Create Well Workplace.” And finally, four Case Studies comprise the final section, spanning the country while representing five very different work sites, including a child welfare organization in Ontario, the workforce of the University of Saskatchewan, a Canadian public sector employee assistance program, and a religious site where occupational assistance has been applied to a church community.

The “Age Wave” demographic shift has arrived. Every day, approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65. In addition, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported in 2013 that more than 44.7 million people are age 65 and older, representing a 24.7 percent increase since 2003. This changing landscape raises a variety of issues, including how best to support our elders. Many working Baby Boomers are caring for parents in their 80s and 90s. And, younger workers are caring for those in their 60s and 70s who have health problems.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) can expand their business value by creating connections with other employee health and benefit programs within the same work organization. The Organizational Health Map identifies potential partners within each of the three segments of the health care cost continuum model (Preventive Care; Acute Care; and Chronic Care). The EAP can offer resources, referrals, and behavioral health expertise to help make these programs more effective. Collaborating with Human Resources is needed to facilitate integrating the EAP into other programs. Finally, the EAP can consult with leaders of the organization to advance company-wide health and work culture initiatives.

This article explores the implications of a financial budget devoted to EAP services and how it either promotes or limits, the opportunities for creating effective partnerships and key integration. I summarize key points from my EAP Talks keynote presentation on the Organizational Health Map conceptual model at EAPA’s 2016 World EAP Conference in Chicago.

Changes over the past decade have produced many promising trends in workplace mental health, although certain problems remain. That is the consensus of a recent research project that examined the evolution of workplace mental health policies and strategies in Canada between 2007 and 2017. The study focused on the five areas of legal advances, shifts in business priorities, changes in education and training, media trends, and research priorities.

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